Begins Sunday, July 5, 2026

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Instructor Bio

Instructor Lauren Davis is the author of three chapbooks, as well as the short story collection The Nothing (YesYes Books, 2025) and the poetry collections Home Beneath the Church (Fernwood Press) and When I Drowned (Kelsay Books). Her fiction won the Landing Zone Magazine's Flash Fiction Contest, and her fiction and poetry have been finalists for the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize and the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, among others. Her poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous literary publications and anthologies, including Prairie Schooner, Spillway, Poet Lore, Ibbetson Street, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere, and she has taught at The Writers' Workshoppe, Adirondack Center for Writing, BARN Bainbridge, Writing Workshops, and Hugo House. She holds an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. Davis lives with her husband on the Olympic Peninsula in a Victorian seaport community.

Who is this class for?

Limited to just 12 students, this online poetry workshop is perfect for the writer who has multiple drafts of poems and wants to put together a chapbook but doesn't know how to get started. This class is designed for intermediate and advanced poets. Participants will need to have already written twenty to thirty-five pages of poetry that they are willing to collect into one chapbook manuscript.

What to expect:

The order of poems within a manuscript can create a variety of experiences for readers. With the proper sequence, poems can build on each other and inform one another. Your poems may be itching to tell a larger story, one that they can't communicate without the context of each other.

In this 6-week online writing class, you will explore the art of structuring a chapbook manuscript. Do your poems all relate to each other in some way? Is there one main theme and multiple smaller themes? Does the first poem echo the last poem? Does it matter? Does the chapbook have a narrative arc that follows time in a linear fashion? Does it move back and forth through time? Does your manuscript contain "connective tissue"? What does that even mean? This poetry writing workshop will answer these questions and more as you work toward assembling a polished chapbook.

Students will read selections from Ordering the Storm by Susan Grimm to guide their work.

For the purposes of this creative writing course, a chapbook is defined as a manuscript of twenty to thirty-five pages of poetry by one author.

Please note: Our peer workshop will utilize a strict deadline to turn in your manuscript as a courtesy to ensure all participants have the same amount of time to participate and provide feedback to each other.

What are the writing goals?

In this course, students will organize and format a poetry chapbook. Participants will receive private instructor feedback on the overall structure of the manuscript. This will be done with a bird's eye view. Participants will not receive line edits. Participants will also receive peer feedback during the manuscript exchange portion of the workshop.

Readings

Readings will include selections from Ordering the Storm by Susan Grimm. All readings will be provided by Davis.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Definition and History of Chapbooks

Week 2: How to Choose the Order of Your Poems

Week 3: Basic Formatting of a Manuscript and Why It Matters

Week 4: Exchange Manuscripts

Week 5: Receive Feedback

Week 6: Looking Forward

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• Appreciate the form and function of chapbook manuscripts.
• Explore the basics and purpose of formatting a manuscript.
• Receive feedback on the overall structure of the manuscript from both peers and the instructor.
• Set intentions to help achieve writing and publishing goals.

TESTIMONIALS:

"This class exceeded my expectations. I loved all of the creative exercises we were given. I felt like I learned so much in a short amount of time." -former student

"I loved this class, particularly Lauren's suggestions to revise, break apart, and rethink words." -former student

"I'm so happy I signed up for this class. My favorite parts were Lauren's suggestions for intensive practice and her unusual revision techniques." -former student

"I loved Lauren's Break Your Poem class, and I found her ideas on rewriting your poem as a lipogram and fitting my poem into another poet's created form." -former student

"This class totally exceeded my expectations. Now I have so many more tools as a poet. I would highly recommend this class." -former student

"I loved how the exercises built on each other, and had potential to be blended. Five of five stars." -former student

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

This class will have an asynchronous classroom in Wet Ink, which means you complete the weekly assignments on your own schedule. There are no set meeting times in order to allow for greater participation; your cohort will consist of writers from across different time zones, which allows for a wonderful diversity of voices.

Along with your weekly deadlines, you can interact with Lauren and your peers within Wet Ink, our dedicated online classroom. Craft materials, lectures, reading assignments, and writing prompts are all available through the online classroom. Students can also post work and provide and receive feedback within the online classroom environment.

You can complete the work as you see fit week-to-week, so it is perfect for any schedule. Each week, discussion questions are inspired by the assigned readings and topics in the lecture notes. Students are encouraged to take these wherever is most compelling and/or useful for them. Lauren engages with these discussions throughout the week, and you will receive feedback from all assigned writing activities.

HOW DOES WET INK WORK?

Wet Ink was built and designed specifically for online writing classes. Wet Ink is private, easy to use, and very interactive. You can learn more about the Wet Ink platform by Watching a Class Demo.